Though the impetuous Chloe Morgan arrives at the Graylord Pastures (a horse farm in northwestern Illinois along the Mississippi River) welcomed as the new summer tutor, she in reality is there for her own purposes. Her best friend, Dawn Reed, who was home-schooling Nissa Graylord before Chloe, disappeared into the night nearly a month ago. A letter saying she was eloping cut short any police investigation, but didn’t satisfy Chloe. She and Dawn were fostered together for several years, so they’re like sisters. Dawn would never disappear on her, not like her father had.

As Chloe settles in at Graylord Farms, she first suspects Nissa's father Damian Graylord of having something to do with her friend's disappearance. But he's everything to his daughter that her father wasn't to her -- and he's everything she could want in a man. But will he want her when he learns that she's been lying to him about her reasons for taking the job?